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The remains of GSC to develop Survarium... a F2P FPS.

Survarium has been announced, with a countdown pointing to more info tomorrow.

Apparently, the developers who were still at GSC when Grigorovitch shut down everything (only to pretend he didn't afterwards) went on to found Vostok Games. Their first game uses the S.T.A.L.K.E.R template, and probably many of the assets they were working on, with a twist: it is a first person shooter, free to play MMO. This is the closest we're going to get to S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2. Yep.

I'm okay with this, really. STALKER has always been a game I'd love to play multiplayer. Here's hoping they go for a more simulation-esque approach to an MMO instead of the usual instanced grinding. More Eve and less WoW I guess, the game concept definitely lends itself to a more persistent, explorable world.

I'm just glad GSC isn't totally kaput with all the developers sacked and sent out to go work on other projects. It may not be another STALKER but I bet it'll have the same style.

I'm waiting for the inevitable moment when a group of modders announce a true singleplayer successor to S.T.A.L.K.E.R after such a betrayal and it comes out in 5 years, underwhelming. Maybe less if they launch through a kickstarter.

This is depressing to hear. I thought STALKER 2 was still being worked on, albeit at a much slower pace. Damn.

Unfortunately, for me, F2P means an instant avoid. The problem I have with F2P is that you never really get to own the game. It's constantly tied to an online service. What happens when that service shuts down? The game and its community disappear. (Unless someone goes to the great hassle and effort of emulating the server functionality.)

Imagine if this trend had started a decade or so earlier. A lot of the games we still enjoy playing now would be completely gone.

This was one of those annoying things where no could stand still and wait until the money appears, wasn't it. So it all falls apart and one guy is left with a useless IP and no team and the team is left with a whole lot of content and no IP (so they opt to rapidly convert to an MMO). Everybody loses.

I don't know. It seems like the sort of thing though. This is why we can't have nice things, boys and girls.

Frankly I don't give a rat's about this. I'm much more interested in that other thing the Stalker artist guy is working on.

I can't see how that fits with my understanding of good, atmospheric games in the "vein" of STALKER. I want a loner experience, not a screen filled with chat messages and invites to raids of enemy faction headquarters or whatever. If I can play a STALKER and everybody else plays the Mutants ... maybe
How will they monetize ? by unlocks ?
STALKER's XP was money/equipment. You get more money, you get better equipment, you can scavenge in more dangerous places, you get better artifacts -> you get more money and so on....
If they open up this part of the game for microtransactions one of the best things about STALKER will be gone imo....
I don't want to sound to negative, I have great respect for the STALKER devs and think they are capable of another good game or series but when I hear F2P all alarms go off.

OK, I scavenged the internet for a skype and forum chat with some of the STALER devs:
- no single player
- no A-life
- missions/AI/difficulty will be designed for coop play but you can do some alone
- game will be divided into sessions with max 30 players per session (max amount pending)
- f2p but wiith money you will be able to accelerate time or buy "neat" ? stuff
- technical stuff (textures, physics, ballistics) will be "worthy" ?
- post soviet environment is main location
- missions are story driven and needed to complete to advance your char a level (whatever gaining a level means)
- main lead of COP is main lead for survarium

The thing is, in the best of all possible worlds I could very much see this working: if everyone was in character as stalkers, bandits, members of the military etc., and if there weren't too many people per instance.

There are multiplayer games that don't break the fourth wall; the ones that come to my mind right now are Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Journey, where the MP is integrated into the game, its world and its mechanisms. Players aren't given the tools to break the fourth wall. Could something like this work in a MMO shooter? I don't see how it could, but perhaps that's just a failure of my imagination.

This was one of those annoying things where no could stand still and wait until the money appears, wasn't it. So it all falls apart and one guy is left with a useless IP and no team and the team is left with a whole lot of content and no IP (so they opt to rapidly convert to an MMO). Everybody loses.
.

They could've been patient, kickstarter'd it and probably gotten a couple million dollars. I'm sure the demand was there. *sadface*

It's a no-brainer that the owner would want to hold onto the IP until the conditions are right to have another go.

But I don't discount the money problem. Given they were developing a new cross-platform game engine, STALKER 2 would probably have been very expensive. If GSC couldn't secure a favorable publishing deal to make it all work, how could the remaining dev team manage it without the owner's deep pockets?

It might work like the Dead Frontier mmo, where you can chose whether or not you want to be in a pvp (or rather with-other-people) session or not, if not then it's just you vs enemies. Otherwise it's you and other people vs enemies. One simple check-box for loner version on or off. :P

I don't know about anyone else but that Day Z mod for ARMA 2 (RPS write-up here and there are also plenty of good video links in the comments) has made me more interested, and even excited, about this Survarium thing. I still want STALKER 2 of course, but there is certainly potential for something great here.

Yeah something like that would get me interested. I guess we don't really know anything about it yet.
If they drew on the book heavily the way I hoped the first game would do, that'd be cool too. I don't think they'd run into any copyright worries.

Basically, everyone gathers at bars and shanty towns around the edge of a dangerous and abandoned "Zone" of the landscape. There you trade and form groups and hear about missions for specific stuff. Then you tool up and venture in. It gets more dangerous and radio active the further you go and that's pretty much the difficulty curve. To get further you have to buy or steal better gear, plan routes, lay in provisions etc etc.

Something like that would amuse me. Don't know if it would work as an mmo.

I'm personally skeptical of it. But at the same time, I see why they are doing this. The idea of a F2P game in general generates a ton of caution from me. Survarium is most likely a means for Vostok to get some solid ground to stand on. The closure of GSC no doubt shook them up financially, and obviously enough (from the existence of investors) they couldn't just maintain themselves and get back to work on a spiritual successor to STALKER and push it out in some years time.

The investors know what Vostok are all about, they knew how successful STALKER was and, my guess, the Vostok leads discussed with them that they wanted to do a free 2 play game to get themselves on their feet. F2P games tend to be really successful. Look at TF2, LoL, and no doubt the trend will go on. Vostok resorting to a F2P content delivery with a premium service sounds reasonable enough from a financial point of view, and I feel it is important to support the guys behind it, not only because they know what makes a good game, but they deserve it. As a community, the game could be built up on our shoulders. I've seen a lot of hostility towards them, and I just get the feeling it's the upset fans who don't see the whole picture.